Spear Creek murders: Stories of investigating cops hurt in crash

They were travelling into the heart of Queensland’s Outback to investigate a brutal triple murder when their chopper crashed. Now some of the evidence the cops on board managed to save from the wreckage has been revealed. SPEAR CREEK PODCAST: EPISODE 3

THESE are the photographs a fuel-soaked and injured Neil MacKenzie rescued from the helicopter wreckage he’d just escaped.

They were at Spear Creek, at the scene of a triple murder, and it was the first time Senior Constable MacKenzie, a police photographer, had ever taken pictures from the air.

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The hired helicopter, with a pilot and four policemen on board, had not been in the air long when it gave a shudder and plummeted to the ground.

Miraculously, all five men survived — although some of those investigating the 1978 Wolf Creek-style killings would spend a significant amount of time in hospital.

Karen Edwards, her boyfriend Timothy Thomson and his friend Gordon Twaddle were on a motorbike road trip around Australia when they were lured into the bush and shot.

The killings are the subject of a true crime podcast produced by The Courier-Mail.

Karen Edwards

Tim Thomson

It is believed the three friends were befriended by another man on a motorcycle somewhere between Alice Springs and Mount Isa.

In Mount Isa, the trio booked into the Moondarra Caravan Park for two nights. On their first night — October 4 — a man in a Toyota LandCruiser came to visit, returning the following morning to collect them. It was the last time they were seen alive.

Photographs retrieved from a crashed helicopter as police raced to solve a triple murder in Queensland's Outback.

Photographs retrieved from a crashed helicopter as police raced to solve a triple murder in Queensland's Outback.

The man in the LandCruiser returned on nightfall and dismantled their campsite.

Their bodies were found in the bush, 12km north of Mount Isa at Spear Creek, nearly three weeks later.

Homicide detectives from the Cold Case Team are currently reviewing the investigation and say the case is “definitely solvable”.

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The wreckage of the Spear Creek helicopter crash, which was survived by the pilot and five police officers.

The stories of Mr MacKenzie, and former homicide detective Jim O’Donnell, feature in the third episode of Spear Creek — out today.

“The thing was still ticking,” Mr MacKenzie told The Courier-Mail.

“And there was still fuel on us. And I thought, this thing could explode here.

“To be quite honest, I did sort of panic in that, I’m trying to get the seatbelt, and it wouldn’t release, and I thought, get out of here as quick as you can.

“And then I realised I couldn’t get up and walk away because I was in such pain and I had to crawl away.

“I honestly thought, you know, it’s going to explode.”

Spear Creek is available on iTunes and other podcast platforms.